Monday, January 31, 2011

Quicklyst is a site I just found out about from Richard Byrne's award winning blog, Free Technology 4 Teachers. This is a site that is designed to help users take notes and create outlines w/ a easy user interface. Also, there are some nice features for searching w/in notes and the built-in reference guide for terms.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Surfboard is a fun little site that I just found out about on Free Technology 4 Teachers. This site takes any URL and turns the web page into a newsletter format that you can scroll through by clicking on right/left arrows.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Backchan.nl is a great online tool for creating a back channel chat. This is ideal for presenting in front of large groups for professional development or engaging an audience such as a classroom. Another nice feature of Backchan.nl is the ability to create a poll for voting as well.

Scoop.it is a new (beta) site that I found out about from Larry Ferlazzo's excellent blog. This site is designed to allow users to create a online newspaper by "clipping/scooping" different items on a given topic.

This site definitely shows a lot of promise and I recommend giving it a look by clicking here.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Recently, I've had privilege of doing a top 25 list of best of Web 2.0 for education. This has inspired me to create a professional development course and slide show for anyone that is interested. Please feel free to use/download this anyway you see fit, and of course join the wiki if you are interested.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

TeachAde is a social network site designed for educators. I'm relatively a new user but I see a lot of promise here w/ tons of educational resources. There's lot to see here and download such as: videos, articles, and lesson plans.

DropMocks is a nice little site for sharing photos. This is very easy to do by just dragging a photo from your computer and dropping it on the web page. A unique URL is then generated and you can scroll between multiple images depending on how many you dropped. Another nice feature is the ability to name the page as well and save different "mocks" as well.

PodOmatic is an excellent site for creating podcasts that I found out about from the award nominated blog (and wonderful educator, Shelly Terrell), Teacher Reboot Camp. This site is very user friendly and makes it easy to create a podcast and then add audio via iTunes. Once a podcast is created it can then be embedded into a site.

There is definitely a "web 2.0" component here as finished podcasts can then be promoted and shared w/ others online.

PikiFriends is a wonderful site for introducing web 2.0 skills via an online "pen-pal" system. This is ideal for education because it is being filtered and teachers have a lot of control over student accounts. Also, there are a number of great resources on this site and an already well designed curriculum that helps integrate PikiFriends into a classroom.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Connect-a-sketch is a new (beta) site for taking sketches/images and then creating a flow chart out of them. This can be done by uploading an image and then creating links to tie everything together into one smooth flowchart. Also, Connect-a-sketch has a nice user interface that is all drag-n-drop which makes it ideal for users.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Huffduffer is a great site for creating podcasts from audio links around the web. This is done by the use of a bookmarklet and is very easy to use. Also, a user can tag links they find to create multiple podcasts and for easier organization.

Pockets is a great little site that I found out about on Twitter from Ozge Karaoglu. This is a fun site to leave voice mails over Twitter. The way this works is you type in a Twitter user's username (try mine if u like dkapuler) and then record a voice mail after Pockets calls you over the computer. Then when a recipient checks their Twitter feed they will see a link which will then retrieve their voice mail.

Web 2.0 has greatly affected education and the way teachers and students teach and learn. I've decided to compile a list of my favorite web 2.0 sites for education, all are great examples of educational leadership. However, I'm focusing strictly on sites that have an educational portal//instance. What I mean by this is that each site has a section for teachers or a way of controlling the content that students produce. This can be done either by educational accounts, monitoring by teachers, filtering, etc etc. Most of these sites are free but can offer more services via paid subscription...

Top 25 Web 2.0 Sites for Education

Google/Gaggle - Google Apps are some of the most popular services for document creation and collaboration. Also, the suite of tools that Google Apps covers is quite abundant such as: web page creation, groups, spreadsheets, etc. Gaggle has a great suite of filtered tools (check out their collaboration w/ Zoho) to make ideal for education. Gaggle allows for filtered blogging, chatting, messaging boards, and filtered videos in You Tube, etc.

Edmodo - A wonderful free site that creates an educational environment for students that focuses on skills such as blogging and collaboration.

Glogster - A great multi-media site for creating interactive posters that can be viewed online. Plus, student accounts can be created by an educator w/out the need of a student email!!

Voice Thread - One of the most popular web 2.0 sites around. An ideal site for creating interactive presentations/slide shows.

Myths & Legends - A free site that is wonderful for digital storytelling. All a teacher has to do is get approval from a school administrator to sign a school up for this great service!!

Animoto - Create dynamic slide shows w/ one of the most popular slide show creators on the web!!

Mixbook - A great way to create a safe & secure environment for students to create online or real books (for order).

Prezi - The evolution of presentations has arrived w/ this zoomable presentation creator. Also, there is an educational portal in the works.

Aviary Education - A safe secure way that offers a lot of different services for students such as: photo editor, audio editor, and movie creator.

Diigo - An ideal site for social bookmarking that allows teachers to create student account for sharing and annotating links.

Weebly - A fantastic site for creating a student or teacher websites w/ the ability to blog.

ToonDoo Spaces - One of the best online comic creators that allows for student accounts.

Kidblog - One of the top ways for students to create blogs in a safe environment.

Primary Access - A nice site for digital story telling that allows students to use a variety of different resources such as video, audio, photos, etc.

Zoho Wiki - Similar to Google Apps, this online suite offers a secure way for students to create docs and share.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Sync.in is a new site I learned about from Free Technology 4 Teachers. This is a site that is great for collaborating on a document. It works similar to how Google Doc's does and it has a nice feature of color coding different texts by users. A unique URL is generated to share w/ others in collaborating on a text document.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Quiet Write is a new (beta) site that I found about from the excellent educator, Larry Ferlazzo. This is a site that helps develop student's writing/creativity by giving them a place to write online. This is done by giving a user a unique URL and allows them to write in a safe/online forum. A user can then share their writing via that unique URL. This also works nicely on an iPad.

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David Kapuler

I have been working w/ technology and education for over 14 years in a school setting. I'm looking for work in a K-12 environment as a Technology Integration/Support Specialist in WI/IL. Contact email - dkapuler@gmail.com
I'm currently looking to get my Mac OS/Repair Certification, as well as a Masters in Technology Integration.
Also, I have a solid background in web design, w/ network/server support.
On a personal note, I';m a proud father of 3 boys and 1 girl, and have been married for 10 years.